FOI went to 1d, I can’t remember what was LOI, and I think I have to award COD to one of the many very good DDs.
Across
1 Big bandages? (9)
STRAPPING – Double definition.
6 Odd parts of champ’s headgear (3)
CAP – Odd letters from ChAmP – cryptics don’t get much easier than this!.
8 Unbeliever elected Castro, say? (7)
INFIDEL – IN (elected) and FIDEL (Castro, for example). An INFIDEL is someone who rejects a religion, especially Christianity or Islam, hence an unbeliever.
9 Cool person holds it, never flustered (5)
NERVE – Anagram (flustered) of [NEVER]. A cool person is said to hold their nerve.
10 Bombed fort vanished quickly (4,4,4)
HAND OVER FIST – Anagram (bombed) of [FORT VANISHED]. To make money HAND OVER FIST is to profit steadily and rapidly.
12 People; great threat (6)
MENACE – MEN (people – note, other types of people are available) and ACE (great).
13 Protect two companies, one briefly (6)
COCOON – CO (company) repeated (the clue asks for two of them), and ONe (briefly = drop the last letter).
16 Expert fulfilled (12)
ACCOMPLISHED – Double definition.
19 Canine gripped by condescending orthodontist (5)
DINGO – Hidden (gripped by) in {condescen}DING O{rthodontist}.
20 Cutting bone, crack around it (7)
GASHING – SHIN (bone) with GAG (crack) ‘around it’.
22 Some light fish (3)
RAY – Double definition
23 Wrong ten grades – not close (9)
ESTRANGED – Anagram (wrong) of [TEN GRADES]
Down
1 Cut fasteners up (4)
SNIP – PINS (fasteners) reversed (up).
2 Stop part of song (7)
REFRAIN – Double definition.
3 Fill house (3)
PAD – Another double definition.
4 Devoted to someone, one has rewritten novel (2,4)
IN LOVE – I (one) and an anagram (rewritten) of [NOVEL].
5 Massive drunk rooming with American (9)
GINORMOUS – Anagram (drunk) of [ROOMING] with US (American).
6 Dog collars on rectors getting itchy, originally (5)
CORGI – Initial letters (originally) of C{ollars} O{n} R{ectors} G{etting} I{tchy}. CORGI appears for my second blog in a row.
7 Funny person entertaining first of tourists in English city (7)
PRESTON – Anagram (funny) of [PERSON], containing ‘first of’ T{ourist}. Preston didn’t become a City until 2002, an event that passed me by, becoming England’s 50th city in the 50th year of Her Maj’s reign.
11 Poem’s code is nonsensical rot! (9)
DECOMPOSE – Anagram (is nonsensical) of [POEM’S CODE].
12 Turn nasty before claret served up (7)
MEANDER – MEAN (nasty) and RED (claret) reversed (turned up).
14 First hole (7)
OPENING – Yet another DD, our 6th today.
15 Learner entering boxing contest steps up (6)
FLIGHT – L{earner} inside FIGHT (boxing contest). The clue could just have easily ended with ‘steps down’.
17 Sweets in aspic, and yucky!
CANDY – hidden word in [aspi}C, AND Y{ucky}.
18 Old French artist, largely upset (4)
AGED – DEGA{s) (French artist) largely (drop the last letter) and upset (reversed).
21 Main safety equipment activated, initially (3)
SEA – first letters (initially) of S{afety} E{quipment} A{ctivated}. I seem to remember some debate on MAIN meaning ocean or sea last time it appeared in my blog. It comes natural to me to equate the two.
Time: 8:06.
Edited at 2021-08-05 05:21 am (UTC)
Liked GINORMOUS
Thanks Rotter and Mara
Only 1.3Ks —must be a pb — thanks for the suggestion Kevin!
This QC seemed quite tough to us. We biffed 5D as MONSTROUS but once we had 1A we realised our error and replaced it with GINORMOUS (not a word we would have expected to see in the QC). Following our 5D biff we were convinced that the answer to 10A was going to be a latin phrase…..but we sorted it out in the end. Took us 13 minutes all in all.
FOI: CAP
LOI: PAD
COD: INFIDEL
Thanks Mara and Rotter
I don’t like too many double definitions: there seemed to be a lot here.
thanks for the blog
BW
Andrew
I think CAP must have been FOI for everyone today. My LOI was ACCOMPLISHED, with ‘accommodated’ and ‘accumulated’ distracting me.
I also was close to looking up ‘spiz’ as a kind of cut of meat. When I see a word like ‘cut’ I have learnt to try the more obscure definition first, but this time the primary definition was what was needed.
Too many double defs for me, today.
COD AGED, pleased to have parsed that one
Edited at 2021-08-05 06:58 am (UTC)
I do not like the word “ginormous”. It seems like a made up word to me, one I have never really considered a “proper” word. However, it was obvious and so in it went.
21a. SEA – I was able to answer this one, only because I have seen it here before.
Three unanswered clues, one incorrect answer, and one ruined by a stupid typo.
alas, you are right; no candy for me today.
I nearly blew it by writing gynormous but stopped to parse it and saw the error of my ways. I thought there were some neat anagrams — I liked HAND OVER FIST. I seemed to see the DDs quickly and enjoyed COCOON and AGED. Thanks to Mara and Rotter. John M.
Edited at 2021-08-05 08:11 am (UTC)
Much enjoyed today, the first time for ages I’ve been able to settle down to do this, thank you Mara and Rotter.
Diana
Once I had some letters things were much easier although I doubt many people thought of Degas before writing in AGED. I found the anagrams hard and my LOI was DECOMPOSE. Good puzzle.
12:42 on the clock.
David
Finished in the SE with a pause over GASHING and AGED, where I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition. Completed in 8.15
Thanks to Rotter
Edited at 2021-08-05 02:45 pm (UTC)
SNIP (SPIZ anyone?), STRAPPING and PAD were my last three, in that order.
7:22
Unlike others here, I really like double definitions. I’d take those any day over hiddens which I often seem slow to spot.
Very much enjoyed the smoothness of the clues today achieved by eg semantic fields as in, for example, dog collars and rectors in 6 down, and by great anagrinds eg vanished in 10 across.
Thanks, rotter, for the blog and thanks, too, to Mara
Thank you to Mara and to Rotter. Indeed, thank you to all the bloggers and posters; this blog was my route into the wonderful world of cryptic crosswords as a total beginner some years ago, which has led me to many, many hours of frustration and enjoyment.
COD 1 ac “strapping”. Not difficult when you see it, as ever!
Thanks to Rotter for the blog and to Mara
Otherwise he was a great help. Two brains better than one here.
Pencilled in GINORMOUS faintly. A tricky puzzle I thought at first. FOsI CAP, CORGI, DINGO, INFIDEL.
Thanks all, esp Rotter.
Edited at 2021-08-05 11:14 am (UTC)
I limped my way through this one and am gutted to see that a sub-K opportunity has gone begging. Oh the agony.
FOI CAP, LOI PAD, COD PRESTON (the “funny person” really sent me off in the wrong direction, very neat!), time 14:22 for 1.25K and a Very Bad Day.
Many thanks Mara and Rotter.
Templar
Cedric
FOI – 6ac CAP
LOI – 20ac GASHING
COD – 1ac STRAPPING
Thanks to Mara and Rotter
Edited at 2021-08-05 11:08 am (UTC)
… as for some reason I was not so much not on Mara’s wavelength as not on the same planet. 24 minutes, for my slowest all-correct finish for many a month.
Not entirely sure why, either, as most of the clues are clear enough when explained by Rotter’s blog. Not sure I like Turn = meander in 12D, but otherwise all seems fine and I shall put it down to an Off Day.
Many thanks to Rotter for the blog
Cedric
I didn’t have an issue with “ginormous” — seen much more spurious stuff here than that if I’m being honest. Whilst Preston may be a city I can vouch it’s not the most picturesque place to visit.
Only one I didn’t parse was 19ac “Dingo” — which I must have looked at numerous times trying to find the hidden word and still didn’t find it.
FOI — 6ac “Cap”
LOI — 12ac “Menace”
COD — 12ac “Menace”
Thanks as usual!
Edited at 2021-08-05 12:09 pm (UTC)
FOI CAP
LOI OPENING
COD STRAPPING
TIME 5:18
And, what’s more, I fully parsed just about every clue as I went along. Like jamesd46 above, I struggled to get started (apart from CAP), but gradually picked up speed, building on each new solution. I smiled when CANDY appeared (sorry to hear it’s not on PWs menu today) and also when MENACE turned up (my favourite breakfast cereal bowl has a great picture of Denis and Gnasher charging off to enjoy their day). I dithered a little over HAND OVER FIST, and SNIP took a 3-4 minute alphabet trawl. My LOI was NERVE.
I will be interested to see how Mrs Random copes with today’s puzzle (I’m quietly confident), but I will have to wait, as she is at her parents’ for the day again.
Many thanks, as usual, to Mara and therotter.
DNF
tibia
in British English
(ˈtɪbɪə)
NOUN
Word forms: plural tibiae (ˈtɪbɪˌiː) or tibias
1. Also called: SHINBONE
the inner and thicker of the two bones of the human leg between the knee and ankle
Compare fibula
So did not get Meander Accomplished Decompose
Ran out of steam.
Thanks all
John George